CONVERSATION WITH Qalqalah قلقلة
The ALT + SHIFT + COMM series will continue with a conversation with Line Ajan, Virginie Bobin, Montasser Drissi, Victorine Grataloup, and Vir Andres Hera of Qalqalah قلقلة, an editorial and curatorial platform dedicated to the production, translation, and circulation of artistic, theoretical, and literary research in Arabic, English, and French.
Founded in 2018 in France, in the midst of a political and intellectual context marked by reactionary, authoritarian, and discriminatory speeches and acts, Qalqalah قلقلة asserts a feminist, inclusive, and intersectional stance. It relies on translation as a tool for the production and reception of situated knowledge, capable of making visible the relations of power and the possibilities of invention and affection that are at play between languages, temporalities, and contexts marked by the colonial legacy and contemporary revolts. More than a publishing space, Qalqalah قلقلة is conceived as a place of attachments, where one can cultivate long-lasting friendships, generative connections, and multiple affections. The platform borrows its name from the main character of two short stories written by the Egyptian curator and researcher Sarah Rifky.
Qalqalah قلقلة was co-founded in 2018 by Virginie Bobin and Victorine Grataloup. Its editorial committee is composed of Line Ajan, Virginie Bobin, Montasser Drissi, Victorine Grataloup, Vir Andres Hera.
Line Ajan is an independent curator based between Paris and Chicago. She is the 2019-2020 Barjeel Global Fellow at the MCA Chicago.
Virginie Bobin works across research, curatorial, and editorial practice, focusing on pedagogy and translation. In 2018, she started a practice-based research project on the political and affective stakes of translation within the framework of the PhD-in-practice program in Artistic Research at the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Vienna).
Montasser Drissi is a Moroccan graphic designer and type designer based in Paris.
Victorine Grataloup works as an independent curator. She is the recipient of the 2020 Centre national des arts plastiques curatorial research grant. Simultaneously, she works with École des Actes (the Acts School), an experimental micro-institution working in between languages in Aubervilliers, France.
Vir Andres Hera is an artist, researcher, and a graduate student of the University of Quebec in Montreal and the Fresnoy – National Studio of Contemporary Arts.
